The Cloud Chamber

June 27, 2005
Maynard (The Usual Rules
) sets her deeply moving coming-of-age novel in rural America during the late 1960s. The story begins with hard-hitting drama: 14-year-old Nate Chance comes home from school one day to find that his father, a struggling farmer, has tried (and failed) to commit suicide. Then, taking on a reflective tone, the book goes on to explore how the incident impacts the family. As rumors about Nate's "psycho" father spread throughout their small community, Nate suddenly finds himself an outcast at school and in town. Even his best friend, Larry, acts distant. To make things worse, no one at home will talk about the incident, and Nate remains separated from his father, who is recovering in a mental institution 300 miles away. Nate finds a welcome distraction in his science fair project, a cloud chamber that will illuminate cosmic rays present in the atmosphere. While planning and constructing the chamber with his assigned partner, Naomi, Nate begins to sort out his feelings for his father, accept the changes that are occurring at home and understand the pain of another shunned student. The author's poignant third-person narrative, told from Nate's perspective, offers an intimate rendering of emotional anguish and a subtly conveyed meditation on survival and forgiveness. Ages 11-14.

dylvon1617 - Have you ever not had a dad for awhile? Well Nate didn’t for a long time in his life. In the book The Cloud Chamber by Joyce Maynard, . Nate and his a younger sister didn’t have a dad for a long period time. The story takes place in modern time on a farm and in a hospital. The turning point is when Nate and his sister came home on the bus that day the couldn’t believe their eyes when they saw their dad being dragged away by the police with blood pouring down his face, and was raised into the ambulance on a stretcher, and was drove away. One conflict is that now Nate and his sister have no clue what is going on and all they know that their dad is gone. Another is that now the mother is worried because now the dad isn’t there to help out on the farm. The protagonist is Nate and the antagonist is his dad. Will Nate ever get his dad back or will he never see him again? I recommend this book for people who are interested and enjoy a sadder story, I also recommend it to middle school kids and above.